1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to medical, dental and veterinary appliance disposal, hereinafter referred to as medical to include all fields. More particularly this invention relates to an improved apparatus for the safe disposal of potentially injurious medical appliances such as needles, syringes, scalpel blades, laboratory culture slides, blood tubing and toxic waste containers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Potentially contagious medical waste, such as scalpel blades and particularly syringes with needles present an imminent threat of injury to patient-care personnel. Accidental needle puncture is the most frequent accident in hospitals. The Bacterial Diseases Division, Bureau of Epidemiology, Center for Disease Control, advises that disposal apparatus for such waste should be rigid containers; placed in each patient room; syringes with needles should be placed directly into the disposal container without disassembling needle from syringe; and full containers should be securely taped shut to provide safe storage prior to final disposal with other solid waste from the hospital. Contagious medical waste of the above nature presents an even more serious problem of disposal and specialized handling. Prior disposal containers, particularly for scalpel blades and syringes and needles, have been largely unable to meet the above criteria.
Prior disposal methods for medical waste have been of several types. One type requires the user to insert the needle into an external clipping device which shears the needle. However, the syringe must be placed separately into a disposal container. Since the external clipping device requires two hands to operate, the user must have both hands free to dispose of a needle and syringe. Moreover, the external clipping device may dull and then is likely to splatter the immediate area with blood or other syringe contents. The clipping or snapping disposal techniques air mobilize microorganisms or other contaminants. Other similar methods involve chopping the assembled needle and syringe into pieces or recapping the needle and manually breaking the assembly prior to disposal. These methods result in added exposure to health care personnel.
A second general means of disposal has used a corrugated cardboard container with a slot in the top panel through which the user inserts the appliance for disposal. This type of disposal container does not include a clipping or other means for making the syringe needle inoperable. Furthermore, since the receiving slot remains open while the container is in use, there is a chance the contents could be spilled if the disposal container was upset.